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The Amazing Spider-Man is a 2012 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, and sharing the title of the character's longest-running comic book series. It is the fourth theatrical Spider-Man film produced by Columbia Pictures and Marvel Entertainment, a reboot of the series following Sam Raimi's 2002–2007 Spider-Man trilogy, and the first of the two The Amazing Spider-Man films. The film was directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves, and stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, Irrfan Khan, Martin Sheen, and Sally Field. In the film, after Peter Parker is bitten by a genetically altered spider, he gains newfound, spider-like powers and ventures out to save the city from the machinations of a mysterious reptilian foe.

Plot[]

A young Peter Parker discovers that his father Richard Parker's study has been burgled. Peter's parents gather hidden documents, take Peter to the home of his Aunt May and Uncle Ben, and then mysteriously depart.

Years later, a teenage Peter attends Midtown Science High School, where he is bullied by Flash Thompson, and has caught the eye of Gwen Stacy. At home, Peter finds his father's papers, and learns his father worked with fellow scientist Dr. Curt Connors at Oscorp in the field of cross-species genetics. Sneaking into Oscorp, Peter enters a lab where a "biocable" is under development from genetically modified spiders, one of which bites him. He later discovers he has developed spider-like abilities, such as sharp senses, reflexes and speed.

After studying Richard's papers, Peter visits the one-armed Connors, reveals he is Richard's son and gives Connors his father's "decay rate algorithm", the missing piece in Connors' experiments on regenerating limbs. Connors is being pressed by his superior, Dr. Ratha, to devise a cure for the dying head of Oscorp, Norman Osborn. In school, Peter is exposed after a basketball challenge with Flash, in which Peter accidentally shatters the backboard glass. His uncle changes work shifts to meet with the principal, and asks Peter to walk May home for him that night. Peter forgets to do so, distracted while at Oscorp helping Connors regenerate the limb of a laboratory mouse. At home, he and Ben argue, and Peter leaves. At a nearby deli, a cashier refuses to let Peter buy milk when Peter is two cents short; when a thief suddenly raids the store, Peter allows him to escape. While searching for Peter, Ben attempts to stop the thief, and is killed. The thief escapes as Peter finds Ben dead on the sidewalk.

Afterward, Peter uses his new abilities to track down criminals matching the killer's description. After a fall lands him inside an abandoned gym, a luchador-wrestling poster inspires him to create a mask to hide his identity. He adds a spandex suit and builds mechanical devices to attach to his wrists to shoot a biocable "web". Later, at dinner with Gwen's family, he has a tense conversation with her father, police captain George Stacy, over the new masked vigilante's motives. After dinner, Peter reveals his identity to Gwen, and they kiss.

After seeing success with the mouse using lizard DNA, Ratha demands Connors begin human trials immediately. Connors refuses to rush the drug-testing procedure and put innocent people at risk. Ratha fires Connors and decides to test Connors' serum at a Veterans Administration hospital under the guise of a flu shot. In an act of desperation, Connors tries the formula on himself. After passing out, he awakens to find his missing arm has regenerated. Discovering that Ratha is on his way to the VA hospital, Connors, whose skin is turning green and scaly, goes to intercept him. By the time he gets to the Williamsburg Bridge, Connors has become a violent hybrid of lizard and man, tossing cars, including Ratha's, over the side. Peter, now calling himself Spider-Man, snatches each falling car with his web-lines.

Peter suspects Connors is the Lizard and unsuccessfully confronts the creature in the sewers. The Lizard learns Spider-Man's real identity via the name on an abandoned camera and follows Peter to school, where they fight again. Police start a manhunt for both Spider-Man and the Lizard. The Police corner Spider-Man by taking off his mask and Captain Stacy discovers that Spider-Man is really Peter. The Lizard plans to make all humans lizard-like by releasing a chemical cloud from Oscorp's tower, to eliminate the weaknesses he believes plague humanity. Gwen infiltrates Oscorp and creates a cure. Spider-Man then eventually disperses an antidote cloud instead, restoring Connors and earlier victims to normal, but not before the Lizard mortally wounds Captain Stacy. Before his death, Captain Stacy requests Peter avoid Gwen, in order to keep her safe. Peter initially does so, but later at school, suggests to Gwen he may see her after all.

In a mid-credits scene, Connors, in a prison cell, speaks with a man in the shadows who asks if Peter knows the truth about his father. Connors doesn't know, and demands Peter to be left alone before the man disappears.

Cast[]

  • Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
  • Max Charles as Peter Parker (Age 4)
  • Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy
  • Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curt Connors/The Lizard
  • Denis Leary as George Stac
  • Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben
  • Sally Field as May Parker
  • Irrfan Khan as Rajit Ratha
  • Chris Zylka as Flash Thompson

Sequel[]

The Amazing Spider-Man was followed by a sequel: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014).

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

Spider-Man
Spider-Man (1977), Spider-Man Strikes Back (1978), Spider-Man (1978), Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge (1981), Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man 3 (2007), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Venom (2018), Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), Morbius (2022), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2022), Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (2024)
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